Merton Council has called for the release of secret plans to close St Helier Hospital and the full disclosure of who is behind the controversial proposal.

The Labour motion was voted through at a full council meeting on Wednesday night - three days after the BBC revealed health consultants had been overheard on a train discussing plans to close the hospital and Epsom hospital and replace them with an 800-bed "super hospital".

Campaigners and politicians have responded with outrage to the plans - with Mitcham and Morden Labour parliamentary candidate Siobhain McDonagh camping outside the chief executive's office on Tuesday morning to demand answers from him in person.

From Tuesday: Secret plans to close Epsom and St Helier and build new "super hospital" overheard on train

Campaigners appalled and outraged by secret plans to close St Helier and Epsom Hospitals

Epsom and St Helier Trust chief executive Daniel Elkeles told the BBC earlier this week: "This is a long-term plan and any of the options being looked at here are many years away from being implemented and will need a lot more discussion, agreement and consultation before happening."

Conservative councillors suggested a number of minor amendments, including praise for Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt who has said a Tory government would not support the plans. But after these were defeated at a vote, the Labour motion was waved through by all councillors.

But despite the trust making it clear that it had to draw up proposals for the ageing hospitals after 2020, Conservative councillor Suzanne Grocott dismissed news the leak about possible hospital closures as "gossip".

She said: "I can't say I know the full extent of the gossip - other than some unnamed person overheard some unnamed consultants talking about a long-term project on the day that Nick Clegg visited the hospital.

"And it sounds more apropos that Sutton is a Lib Dem seat which they [Labour] are hoping to hold."

Conservative councillors in Merton have long accused the Labour group of using St Helier Hospital as a political tool - claiming there is no real threat to close the hospital.

Conservative councillor David Williams said on Wednesday night: "There is not any serious disagreement between both sides of the council - as indeed, there never has been.

"Our support for St Helier Hospital and the maternity services and the A&E units has never been in doubt and indeed, when I was leader of the council, we put down motions to that effect."

Councillor Stephen Alambritis, leader of Merton Council, will write to Jeremy Hunt and the chief executive of Epsom & St Helier Trust reporting the council's "shock" at the plans, how they have been revealed and the council's pledge to keep fighting to protect St Helier Hospital.

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